A little closer to Christmas

This weekend provided a little R&R for the Schmidt girls to help recover from the CRUD of the previous weekend.  I can say that both Abby and Megan are both on the mend, but poor Emma is still miserable as last week and we'll probably have another follow up dr. appointment this week as we don't like to hear what's coming out of our poor baby.  We did get most of the rest of our Christmas decorations up however and just have to decorate one more tree tonight and put up the nativity scene and we can call it officially decorated.  We are going to continue to bake some more as the girls have asked for more Grandma Powers chocolate chip cookies - and who am I kidding, I want more too!  Then Abby brought home a recipe for Puppy Chow that they made in Kindergarten so we will be making our first attempt at that as well.

Saturday morning Emma got her local showing of "Dancing with the Stars"

Carrie Ann would say "I had to give a deduction for the lift".

We were going through our toys and found some old sun glasses that should fit Emma this summer - had to try them on.

We did get one tree decorated this weekend after much crying/arguing that their room had to be cleaned up before that could happen.

Friday night was Megan's"Cookies with Santa" preschool fundraiser so we decided to go since all kids had returned to school/daycare that day and survived.  This was our photo after we finally detached Emma's hand from Santa's beard.

And now Emma has entertainer herself with her shirt to give her belly photo.

"And I want a bear that you can write on and wash, Megan wants a pink car, and we don't know what Emma wants."

Picking our nose with Santa.

Megan and her best friend Emma

Making Snowman Socks - very creative idea!

It's crazy how quickly Christmas is sneaking up on us!  We still have a lot of shopping to do for exchange presents.  Thankfully Amazon.com is open 24 hours a day.

The Week of Christmas Crud

This past week has been miserable for the Schmidt kids.  They have managed to get an array of viruses that have all resulted in doctor visits, missed school, and sleepless nights for Tim and I.  But we will prevail!  Despite our fridge that looks like a pharmacy with prescriptions we have continued our Christmas preparation traditions - germs and all.

The stockings were hung by the "Chinese Cabinet" with care.......that's Abby's word for it.

Decorating Grandma Papke's molasses cookies

My frosting partner in crime finishing up the final cookies

A close up of our stockings with the new addition of Emma's.  All 3 are unique.

Abby and Megan reviewing their ornaments for their tree the weekend "THE CRUD" showed up

Even though under the weather Megan got to roll out the "leftover" small ball of dough until it was in pieces.  Also - Diet Coke and flour do not mix - the can was upright for that moment.

Getting our decorating on with Emma giving her comments

This year they were more careful with their decorating placements....at least to start with

"Hey you - I'm trying to dump sprinkles in the middle of cookies here!"

Even though all 3 kids are sick we are still enjoying ourselves.  Sam's Club appreciated my purchase of Kleenex, and I did seriously think about getting some "Boogie Wipes" with all the snot we have in our house but passed for now.  Our mornings and nights start/end with "Let me check your temperature" and "Did you take your medicine?"  I'm waiting for a safe disinfecting wipe to come out for kids that have to be reminded to wash their hands constantly - and then asked again if they used soap.  I could at least randomly swab them off.
We had an enjoyable night sitting around the table, listening to Christmas music, decorating cookies, and trying to not wince when the cookies were coughed or sneezed on.  It was perfect.
Frosting kills germs - right?

Emma is 5 Months!

Our little baby is now 5 months old!  How the time flies when you are busy.  She is still a happy and entertaining baby that we can't get enough of and can make us laugh with her noises or with her happy smile.

Emma @ 5 Months:

• Rolls from front to back and back to front - she is now everywhere (within a 5 ft radius for now)
• Had her first ear infection
• Has conquered eating cereal - like all Schmidt kids she loves to eat
• Can melt you with her smile
• Has the best giggle
• Loves watching her sisters play and dance
• Loves to be upright to see everything, working on sitting up
• Does not like to snuggle unless she is exhausted and almost asleep
• Will "grunt talk" to you for minutes at a time - usually our nightly routine before dinner
• Is possibly the gassiest baby of all 3 - she keeps you guessing!
• 17 lbs and size 3 diapers already.
• Still in infant car seat (for this week at least, getting ready to switch to convertible seat)

She is still the happiest baby, we are very lucky!

Merry Thanksgiving!!

We have a tremendous amount of things to be thankful for this year and getting to spend time with the whole Papke family over Thanksgiving is just one of many things.  This year we headed to Iowa to celebrate Thanksgiving/Christmas together.  It is an "Outlaw" Christmas this year so we combined Christmas this year with Thanksgiving on the Papke side.  We also made a trip to Delmar, IA for a Powers family gathering of Aunts/Uncles/Cousins and Skyping to Hawaii.  Got to love technology!

 Here are a couple of photos from the weekend:

Abby and Kitty playing on the iPad.  What would we have done without it!

The "adult" dinner table, looking pretty sharp as usual.

Emma enjoying her first "Merry Thanksgiving".  Didn't really have any interest in things other than to put them in her mouth.  She did receive some very nice 1st Christmas ornaments for the tree.

Megan's new raccoon hat - hasn't really taken it off since she got it.

Abby and her polar bear hat

Kitty and her stocking cap that has room for a pony tale.  Kitty wore this all night too.

Emma's chair/stool from the Chicago Papke's

Andrew and Kitty - still amazes me that he's a Dad now.

Putting together Kitty's Little People castle, Abby and Megan were pretty excited about it.  I hope Kitty enjoys it as much as they hope she will.

Megan and Kitty watching TV together by the fire.

Aunt Colleen and Emma

Grandpa Papke and Emma.  Grandpa is a little wind burnt from the football game.

Abby trying to teach Grandma Papke how to play Toca Monsters on the iPad

Aunt Rebekah and Emma - they had some nice matching blues on.

The 3 oldest cousins all coloring together - peacefully - at that moment at least.

A little cousin loving

Emma showing off her rolling over skills

 Then off to Delmar, IA and the Powers family lunch.

Abby's new favorite cousin Alex - he has the newest games to play on his phone.

Uncle Pat and Megan

They even look kind of similar

One last bottle with Grandpa Papke

 It was a very nice trip, and went by too quickly as the trips to Iowa usually do because we are busy.  It's a busy house with 4 kids (3 running around) in it.  We did get a whole family Papke Christmas photo taken so watch out, it's been a while since one of those has graced your mailbox.  I'll keep you wondering what it looks like......
Merry Thanksgiving to all!!

1st IL Deer Season

This past weekend was IL first deer season and not a single Schmidt girl went hunting this time.  This was due to having 3 birthday parties this past weekend that they preferred to attend instead of deer hunt.  Which is probably a good thing, because the girls would have probably impeded on Tim's napping in the deer stand this year.  The weather was wonderful so that means most of the Schmidt men went out in the afternoon and napped.  Tim did not shoot, but his Dad and our brother-in-law BJ both shot deer.

So, back to the birthday parties.  We started Saturday morning with a Birthday Tea Party for Callie Sapp in Auxvasse.  The girls came back with painted nails and their very own tea cups so they were happy campers.  Saturday afternoon was Lily Slenker and then staying to watch the MU pitiful last minute loss.  The kids ran around and enjoyed the bounce house.  By the time we got home that night after the game they just crawled into bed and crashed.  No parenting needed!  Sunday was Cora Davenport's birthday in Centralia.  Stacy has it down to an art and it was over in an hour. 

In between all these birthday parties we decided to bring back a couple "old" crafty hobbies.  The first one is making potholders.  My Grandma Powers taught me to make them one trip to the farm.  I probably made 20+ in the next 2 days.  I still have my loom somewhere.....so Abby really wants to learn to sew since I have been quilting and my Mom had the idea of potholders so that was one of her birthday presents.  This weekend was our first "lesson" in potholder making.  Abby is a natural!

Our second potholder "in progress" is a rainbow

This was Abby's first potholder she made.  She designed the purple and orange herself and did all of it but the outer edges that I had to help a little bit with on her own.  Very proud of her.

Emma is scooting and rolling everywhere now.  She started at the top of this blanket and was here when I checked on her again.  She'll scoot in a 360 and did officially roll over on Sunday for the first time from back to front.

Our second blast from the past craft activity was using my Make It & Bake It oven.  Yes, this is mine from 20+ years ago.  My parents kept it and it still works!  They are now selling them again at the stores, but are definitely a lot fancier than mine.

My Make It & Bake It Oven

Cooking a castle sun catcher

Abby and Megan both made a sun catcher this weekend.  Now I just have to vacuum up all the small pieces that escaped to the floor.  They were both using tweezers to place the beads. It was like watching a bad game of Operation.  Eventually I was requested to help, which I have to admit was a little fun.  Might have to make my own..

Always have to end with an Emma photo.  Hadn't done a bath photo yet.  She now gets to sit in the tub and loves to kick her feet and splash.  I'm guessing we'll have another water friendly baby this summer.

Emma is looking more and more like Abby when she was a baby.  I keep comparing photos, and other than Abby being a little chubbier in the face (well overall in general) they are pretty identical.  Emma did conquer the concept of eating cereal this past week though so that process is going much smoother now.  It's less messy at least, that is until we introduce vegetables......

Abby's 6th Birthday

Our "baby" is now 6 - where did all the time go???
We celebrated the day with THREE parties - yep, that's a lot of cupcakes!
She had a party at Kindergarten, daycare, and then Bonker's to round up the evening.

Our morning Birthday picture - not sure if she was really awake yet.

Had to get a picture in with Megan, and of course they are adorable

The final celebration of the day.  I forgot to take pictures of the other two cakes but we had Brave and Under the Sea themes

Lighting all the candles

Getting ready to blow out the candles while we sang Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candles and trying not to set her hair on fire

Can't forget an Emma picture - she is with our neighbor's daughter Angie

Abby @ 6:

• Is in Kindergarten
• 47 inches tall - 56 pounds
• Loves to read books, write words, and do math
• Is a very good artist!  Loves to color.
• Is very helpful with her baby sister Emma - almost a little too helpful
• Still best buds with Megan
• Learned how to swim on her own this summer without water wings
• Favorite shows - Good Luck Charlie, Phineas & Ferb, basically anything Nick Jr. or Disney
• What she wants for her birthday:  "To go to Twilight #5 with Mommy"
• Has lost 4 teeth so far on the bottom and one on the top is very loose
• Newest obsession - starting Tim's work truck in the morning to get the frost off

That's just a little snap shot of all things Abby.  We are very lucky to have such a wonderful daughter!!

Bow Season

This is the first deer season hunting on the farm so Tim is pretty excited to FINALLY have his own land to hunt on.  This year he has a new hunting buddy - Megan.  She is actually pretty excited to go and can't wait to shoot a deer.  She looks through all of the photos from the cameras to see what's out there and tells Tim where he should shoot them.  She went with Tim to get his bow restrung and now wants her own - purple of course with pink and purple arrows.

They saw one at the end of the evening last night, but it was too dark to shoot at it.  Maybe next time.....